


Doctor Yra'tka

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Galaxy Quest (1999)
Genre: Aliens, Background Canonical Relationships - Freeform, Background Relationships, Gen, On Set, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, Reveal, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28286823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Medic number two gets a surprise on the set of Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues
Comments: 13
Kudos: 53
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Doctor Yra'tka

**Author's Note:**

  * For [20thcenturyvole](https://archiveofourown.org/users/20thcenturyvole/gifts).



"Medic number two, report to the office after lunch." Came the announcement from the PA.

Myra glanced around, but none of her fellow "numbers" seemed to have any idea what was going on. That was not entirely unusual, for GQ: The Journey Continues. Myra had made her way through the CSIs and Law and Orders and such in bit parts, but none of her other shows had prepared her for this.

There was always the arrogant star who refused to talk to his regular castmates, let alone the bit players, and the one that seemed friendly but was actually a bit of a diva, and the one who just rushed home to be with their family… all of that was par for the course no matter what show she had been on, but Galaxy Quest? Completely different.

All of the "big seven" were completely segregated from the rest until the cameras were on. Guy was the only one who even spoke to them, and only to reminisce about his time as Crewman number six and how with talent and luck the other "numbers" could one day get a name like him. It would be your standard odd, patronizing spiel if not for what had happened at Brittany's birthday party during the filming of episode two.

Myra hadn't been there, but Brittany confessed that Guy had stopped in to "say hi from the cast", gotten drunk, and started moaning about how "it was all real, man!" No one had any idea what he meant, but it had spooked a few of the "numbers", and it added to the mystique of just what the hell was going on on this show.

There was also the "special consultant" - Brandon, who was just a kid, but somehow ranked up there with the actors. Myra had given up on trying to understand it, and just did her part as one of the background medics. Until today, and her mysterious summons to the office.

Finishing her lunch quickly, Myra headed over to the trailer that served as the office and knocked. She was quickly bid to enter, and found Gwen DeMarco, Guy, and Fred Kwan sitting with Brandon and the producers. It was a strange assortment, and Myra was even more nervous.

"We're elevating you to series regular," said one of the producers - Myra hadn't ever gotten his name; it was so above her paygrade. "We haven't had a ship's doctor, so we're going to have NSEA Command 'promote' you," he continued.

"Just like me," Guy whispered.

"I wanted it to be a woman," Gwen added smugly.

"Your makeup so far has portrayed you as a Barrunian, but your hair color means that you would have to come from the colony on the dark side of their moon," Brandon piped up, handing her a manila folder over an inch thick. "This is everything you need to know about your species, race, culture, etc. Naming conventions with the Barrunians take the parent's names and then add a descriptive identifier in contraction. On the dark side, all names start with Y - pronounced like a Wy -, so if you wanted it to be similar to your real name, like Guy did, it would have to be something like Yra'tka or Yara'tka. Maybe Yra'tkil."

"That sounds fine..." Myra accepted the folder a little warily. True, she had never been elevated to a series regular before, but this still seemed a little unusual, from what she'd heard from others.

"Oh, if the new uniform shows your arms at all, or if it has a removable jacket, you'll need to have a specific tattoo made. You'll see examples in the fifth section. Think about your character's backstory and then you'll need to coordinate with Katelyn and Makeup on the exact look of it," Brandon concluded.

"Okay…" Myra had no idea who Katelyn was, but she assumed that someone would tell her when it became important.

Mr Dean, the one producer she had met, was the next to speak. "Now, with this elevation comes certain requirements of you. You'll need to sign a new contract and then Gwen and Fred here have volunteered to show you the ropes and explain what you need to know."

"Laliari is pregnant," Fred Kwan said absently.

"Yes, so we're writing that into her arc," Dean continued. "Hence, the need for a doctor character. That's where you come in, Doctor Yra'tka."

"It's a lot to take in, but I'll help you," Gwen added. Myra had no idea why they would think she would need that much help getting a bigger role; she'd been acting since she was four, and she'd done a six month run Off-Broadway as Hope Cladwell when she was sixteen, so it wasn't like she didn't know how to handle a large part.

"And I'll introduce you to Laliari," Kwan offered.

Myra had no idea why that was necessary either, other than the fact that none of the regular cast members had ever met her. She was the only one of the big seven who hadn't been in the original show (Guy's minor role putting him only one step above her), but apparently being Kwan's real life girlfriend had been enough to get her the role.

"Alright, see Legal, HR, and GR, and then Gwen, Fred, and Guy will get you settled," said the producer Myra didn't know.

"Yes sir," she agreed quickly. A PA detached herself from the wall and beckoned for Myra to follow. She did so, still mulling over the unusual nature of the meeting.

~*O*~

"What… the… hell…"

"Oh yeah, that's brutal the first time; I promise you'll get used to it, though," Myra dimly recognized the voice as Gwen's, but that fact was having trouble penetrating her brain right now.

"What… the… hell…" She had gone through Legal, where the contract was about twice as long as she expected, and had a lot of the sci-fi mumbo-jumbo from the show in it. The best she could figure, it meant that she wasn't allowed to tell the secrets about lore and such that she might learn from the writers. HR gave her the usual spiel, and then she'd been handed over to a new PA ("Fetuilelagi but please call me Fetu"). He'd handed her a device that looked like a cross between a fitbit and one of the show's communicators and then escorted her into an empty trailer for her GR meeting.

The next thing she knew, her wrist was glowing and then this… gel? had covered her completely and suddenly she was shooting through SPACE! Now, here she was, trembling, both hot and cold at the same time, feeling like her mind had been squeezed through a tube, and there Gwen stood, cheerfully perky in her jeans and low-cut top, acting like it was perfectly normal.

This called for another 'what the hell.' "What-"

"This is GR - Galaxy Relations," Gwen explained cheerfully. "The short version is that Laliari's race, Thermian? Not fictional. She's one, they're real, and we sort of accidentally discovered that aliens were an actual thing two years ago. The Thermians are particularly naive when it comes to the difference between real and fictional, and they thought that all the shows we used to broadcast were actual biographical stories, so they abducted our 'Protector crew' to help them with an actual intergalactic problem."

"Like y- you… you're what, an alien _ambassador_?" Myra managed to say.

"Basically," Gwen agreed cheerfully. "Well, Jason, Alexander, Fred, Guy, Tommy, and I. Laliari's actually an alien, like I said, so it's more like she's the ambassador to _us_."

Myra couldn't believe this. A bunch of D-list TV stars were the freaking Earth's entire representation to other galaxies? That alone was more mind-blowing than the part where aliens were real. "Why am I here?"

"Oh, well Laliari's actually pregnant, and our producers want to work that into the show. It'll save a ton on special effects if we can film her pregnancy and the baby themselves, the way we do her tentacles. You're going to be playing her doctor, which means you're going to see things you can't otherwise explain, so they decided to read you in on the whole alien thing."

"Oh god," Myra did not need that mental image. Though the reason that none of the cast outside the big seven got to talk to Laliari was suddenly making a lot more sense, as was the whole group's general aloofness from everyone else. If you knew that aliens were real, and spent your spare time with them, you wouldn't have a lot to talk about with a standard extra on set. Oh god, half of the crew had to know about it, if they were filming actual aliens instead of CG!

"Wait- you realize I'm not actually a doctor, right?" If the aliens were real, and they thought that the show was real...

"Oh we know, and we won't let the Thermians talk you into performing surgery, I promise," Gwen chuckled.

"You have no idea how glad I am to have another woman - human, I mean - to talk about this with," Gwen continued. "Don't get me wrong, the Thermian women are nice and all, but it's like talking to a child sometimes, and I can't exactly complain about human problems to them."

"Understandable." Myra managed. She finally felt capable of moving, and she took one tentative step forward.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Gwen held out a cup of what looked like orange juice with a straw in it. "This helps with the space-travel. Something about the proteins in it - I have no idea - but it does help."

Myra accepted the glass and cautiously sipped at the orange juice. There was a slightly spicy undercurrent to it, but it did appear to be basically normal - Earth - oj.

"Well that's the basics, anyway," Gwen continued. "You'll need to sign the GR contract, of course, and Brandon will have another file for you to read to get you up to speed on everything, but you're past the worst part."

It suddenly occurred to Myra exactly why the producers had insisted that she would need Gwen and the others to help her adjust to her new role. It wasn't the promotion on the show, but the promotion into Earthling-Alien relations! She was so not the right person for this! Although, she probably had a better grasp of the ramifications than at least two of the guys in the big seven (ironically, her guides). Wait, did this mean she was part of their group now? Would she be part of the 'big eight' now?

Myra shook those thoughts away. She'd probably be dealing with this revelation in bits and pieces for months to come, but for now - and maybe it was the power of the spicy orange juice - for now she felt ready to handle the next step. "Alright, let's do it."

Gwen visibly brightened. "Great! Welcome to the NSEA, Doctor Yra'tka!"


End file.
